Progress on our new digital platform
The latest circular from the Board to BSC Parties highlights that delivery of system changes to support GB participation in Project TERRE (Trans European Replacement Reserve Exchange, amongst other highlights.
This, plus implementation of Modification P354 – which allows Transmission Companies to provide ABSVD (Applicable Balancing Services Volume Data) for non-BM Balancing Services providers – are playing an important part in delivery of our new digital platform.
Digital platform supports road to net zero
Our digital platform will modernise the architecture of the BSC central systems through:
- digitalised market entry
- customer account management
- Settlement
- analytics
- insight services
The platform ensures that our technology is agile, scalable and ready to deliver the energy industry’s transformation to meet net zero.
The platform is being delivered in multiple phases. We passed a major milestone when the new Settlement platform was implemented alongside Wider Access reforms to open up the Balancing Mechanism to independent aggregators in December 2019.
The Board’s update explains that since then, two other changes to support both the Settlement solution, and Project TERRE implementation were delivered ahead of regulatory deadlines, and to budget.
We are now working towards the external launch of the Customer Solution, the next phase in deployment of the digital platform. It will allow market participants to self-manage numerous BSC processes.
Project TERRE settlement platform deployed
In early June 2020 we successfully deployed the new Settlement platform so that British energy companies can trade on the Project TERRE platform once GB participation in TERRE goes live (expected in October 2020).
Project TERRE creates a European platform for trading reserve electricity with electricity transmission system operators in nine participating countries, including Great Britain.
P354 changes support new Settlement solution
In April 2020, the P354 changes were also deployed in public cloud storage as micro-services for the new Settlement platform. Micro-services are applications comprising smaller, modular services that enable independent flexibility and scale.
Smooth delivery of digital platform
The Board and Elexon colleagues want to ensure that the transfer from legacy systems to the digital platform is a smooth one for the industry. The Board has led a number of discussions about the management of risk, including Elexon’s approach to appointing technology service providers for the platform.
The Board has appointed an independent assurance provider to ensure that due diligence, appropriate risk management and controls are in place.
Elexon’s Annual BSC Meeting
The update letter confirms that our Annual BSC meeting will take place virtually on Thursday 10 September. We will send out invites to the event shortly.
The meeting allows us to engage directly with our stakeholders and demonstrate accountability to BSC Parties. This year will be the first time in which all Board directors, not just those that are appointed or reappointed, have to be approved by an industry vote at the annual meeting. This is an important change as it further improves our accountability to our customers.